Annual gourd

Trichosanthes cucumerina, the snake gourd or patola, is a vigorous annual climbing vine of the Cucurbitaceae widespread in tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia and cultivated throughout South and Southeast Asia. It climbs by forked tendrils and bears kidney- to heart-shaped, sometimes palmately lobed leaves. The unisexual white flowers, 5–10 cm across, have five petals fringed with delicate lacy threads and open at night, giving the plant an unusual appearance. The fruit is greatly elongated and cylindrical, often coiled or serpentine, ranging from about 30 cm in wild forms to well over a metre in cultivated types; it is green with pale stripes when young and ripens red-orange. The immature fruit is eaten as a vegetable, while the very bitter wild form (var. cucumerina) is the type used medicinally.